Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to computer science and, more specifically, to techniques for dynamically displaying pie charts for direct comparison.
Description of the Related Art
Pie charts are widely used to visually illustrate the relative proportions of different components of a composite whole. A pie chart may comprise any circular graphic representation of quantitative information that is divided into segments, where the sizes of the segments are proportional to the quantities the different segments represent. Many software applications are configured to create and display pie charts, making these type of graphics very popular in business or educational settings.
Software applications are oftentimes used to produce two related pie charts with corresponding segments to allow visual comparison of the corresponding segments. For example, a first pie chart may show the proportions of US voters in 2013 identifying as Democrat, Republican, and Independent and a second related pie chart may show the proportions of US voters in 2014 identifying as Democrat, Republican, and Independent. When the two pie charts are displayed next to each other, a segment representing the proportion of Democrats in the first pie chart corresponding to a segment representing the proportion of Democrats in the second chart can be visually compared. To assist users in visually comparing the corresponding segments across the two related pie charts, current software applications are configured to display the pie charts side by side and to display corresponding segments with similar appearance (such as with a same color or texture). However, even with such assistance, many users still find comparing corresponding segments across two related pie charts awkward and difficult.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is a more effective technique for displaying related pie charts to allow for a more direct visual comparison of corresponding pie chart segments.